


What Lives in the Darkness

by penstrikesmidnight



Series: IwaOi Horror Week 2019 [5]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Asphyxiation, Implied Sexual Content, IwaOi Horror Week, M/M, Mind Manipulation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-08 08:33:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21232877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penstrikesmidnight/pseuds/penstrikesmidnight
Summary: Something from outside is stalking Tooru's dreams...





	What Lives in the Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts: **there's nobody out here**/**the known and the unknown**/**losing oxygen**/one last moment/just tentacles/**a growing shadow**/the world's end

Tooru knows he is going crazy, he doesn't need the shrink to tell him, no matter how kindly Suga tries to get him in his office outside of his routine checkup. He knows there is no one out there, just stardust and blackness and void, void, void. Space is so infinite _no one_ knows everything out there. They couldn't.

So there could, hypothetically, be some intelligent being stalking Tooru's dreams.

Sure it wasn't _plausible_ in any sense of the word, but it doesn't mean it _couldn't_ be happening.

"I see it a lot, Oikawa," Suga says as they finish up a lunch of Tooru falling asleep into his protein shake because for some reason he cannot get more than twenty uninterrupted minutes of sleep because he feels _something_ creeping into his subconscious. "A lot of the astronauts here have worries about the vastness of space. Me too. I make Daichi talk me through them."

"Suga, for the last time, I'm fine! I just need to start meditating before I sleep or something. Something that takes my mind off of my work."

Suga looks doubtful. "Meditation is great, Tooru.” Tooru knows better than to think this conversation is over and he is not surprised when Suga starts talking again about three minutes later. “Listen, if it's the office that has you skittish, we can meet somewhere else as friends..."

"Koushi," Tooru says, his voice steely. He stands with his shake, done with this conversation.

"Sorry, sorry! It's my job!" Suga smiles an adorable apologetic smile. Tooru sighs. It is hard to stay mad at Suga for long. "I'll see you at dinner, okay? And no talk of your tiredness, promise. I'll make Daichi swear."

Tooru sighs but agrees. On his way back to his office he glances out at the darkness of space, but the view is the same as the last six years. Black, black, black with flashes of distant stars. There is absolutely no one out there.

***

He falls asleep in the middle of his report on the chemical composition of the last sample of dirt they scraped off the side of the ship. He has had this sample on his desk for almost a week—his higher ups are breathing down his neck to get his report in. But there is something just slightly wrong with it, something he can’t quite place. And Oikawa Tooru does not give up. He will figure out this composition if it kills him. 

He feels that same slippery sense that usually wakes him up, a slime squeezing into the crevices of his brain, tightening so slow, sending tremors of shock down his body, but this time he stays in his hazy doze. Maybe he is curious. Maybe he is exhausted. And so he has no choice but to allow this—idea, this feeling, to drip down his spine, around into his sinuses before slipping down his throat. He gasps as it pools at the base of his throat, cutting off his air. It feels like this—thing has taken over his head, has the choice to suffocate him or allow him to continue to live.

A thud on his door startles him out of his reverie. His eyes fly open, his head jerks up. His office comes into bleary focus. Then, his body. He raises his hands to his throat, but he is breathing just fine. With shaking hands, he lifts his laptop lid up. In the blurry, blank screen he looks normal. Maybe a little pale, but it is hard to tell in the black reflection. He wipes a light sheen of sweat off of his face. He tries not to think about the fact that he is painfully aroused. 

It is not his fault he has been in space for six years with no chances of getting laid. And! Adrenaline can cause an unwanted boner and suffocating is definitely something to trigger those reactions. He contemplates messaging Suga, but he is _not_ going to set up an appointment with him, so he slams the computer shut and decides to go for a jog instead. 

***

Getting ready for bed is a strange affair. He goes through his normal routine. He doesn’t think about what happened in his office that afternoon. He contemplates meditating, ultimately discarding the idea. He can start tomorrow. He gets to sleep in—his morning meeting had canceled, the only thing on his desk that damn soil sample. He should relax before his work ramps up again in the next few days. They are scheduled to land on the new planet in less than two weeks. The thought sends a thrill through him. This is what he has been working toward for years. 

He only jolts awake once when trying to fall asleep. A record for him, as these past few months have been plagued with strange, minimalist dreams that leave him disoriented, gasping for air and grasping at the realities he knows. He feels like if he gives into these bizarre dreams he is going to plunge headfirst into a pool of unknown madness he will never escape from. Tooru has always been logical. Nothing about his sleep terrors are logic-based. 

He is floating in darkness. At least, he assumes he is. It doesn’t actually feel like he had any sort of form, that he is just thoughts jumbled together to make up who he is. He would panic, but since he has no body he doesn’t know what panicking would look like. So instead he just exists in this black, black void with no beginning or end.

He is definitely panicking. 

Before he can do anything he feels something wrap around him, swaddle him like an infant. And then he becomes very aware of his body, every cell, every atom, how it has huddled into this much larger, reassuring presence. 

_Oikawa Tooru_ he hears. It is more than hearing, it is a deep reverberation in his bones. This thing has named him, claimed him with the trueness of the words. _Why do you run when I can give you everything you have ever wanted?_

Tooru reaches out instinctively, feels more of this thing accept the openings he is offering and burying deep into him. It takes a moment for him to form a coherent thought through the strange, intimate feeling. “Who...What are you? How do you know me?”

The thing tightens around him so Tooru can think of nothing but himself and this entity in this dark, dark place. _I am Hajime. I am your beginning_.

“Haji...Hajime,” Tooru gasps out. It’s too much, Tooru’s suffocating, his body one crystallized ball of pain. He tries to reach out, tries to move, but his lungs are hardening. He sees green, green eyes in front of him. He leans toward them, blindly...

His stomach plummets for a half second as he falls out of bed. He lies on his stomach gasping for air, staring sightlessly at the smooth metal floor of his room. Whole body shaking, he stumbles to the bathroom, stares at himself in the mirror. There’s nothing wrong. Maybe he’s a little pale, but his cheeks are rosy, probably from his panting. Maybe from the heat. Definitely not from the thought of that...dream. He splashes cold water on his face. He glances at his bed, the sheets twisted into a ball, his pillow on the floor at the foot of the bed. It looks like a war zone.

He checks his watch. It is only four in the morning. He thinks about going to his office to finish that soil sample, but the thought of work makes his limbs heavy. He assesses his bed again. He thinks about calling Suga.

In the end, he slips back into bed.

He doesn’t know what he expects, but it is not to wake up at ten in the morning after an uninterrupted rest. He feels refreshed for the first time in weeks. While he does his hair in his mirror, he is smiling. The feeling of eyes on him is less uneasy, more comforting. 

“Hajime,” he whispers. His beginning. He feels the ever present darkness shiver in response to his call. 

***

Suga studies Tooru as he sits across from him at dinner almost two weeks later. “You look happy.”

“Exhilarated,” Tooru corrects, taking a big bite of something that looks like scrambled eggs but tastes nothing like them. “We get off this damned ship in less than two days! Aren’t you excited, Suga? Daichi?”

Daichi shrugs with a small laugh. “I guess I am. And the report from the scouting party sounds promising. I can’t wait to see what new life we discover.”

“Ever the biologist, my Daichi.” Suga wraps his arm around Daichi’s. Tooru rolls his eyes. He feels something squeeze around his heart, temporarily taking his breath away. “Anyway, you seem to be doing much better this past week.”

“Told you I didn’t need an appointment,” Tooru says. “Meditation is wonderful.” Truthfully, Tooru isn’t meditating. His dreams have become something he craves, a junkie who needs his fix every night. He had become used to the paralyzing sensations, the overwhelming presence of Hajime around him. He still isn’t sure entirely what it is, their connection. From the information he has gathered, Hajime lives on their new planet in an actual body, not this ensnaring gooey darkness. He says the darkness is a good way to communicate, a good way to get to know each other, which Tooru can’t deny. He has allowed Hajime into every crevice of his body and mind, the most intimate parter he has ever had.

Suga and Daichi exchange looks. “What?” Tooru asks, setting his fork down.

“Oh nothing, really,” Daichi says. Tooru narrows his eyes. “You’ve just been a little...intense lately.”

“I’ve known you almost twenty years. At this point I think you should already know that intensity is a major part of my personality.” Tooru feels his hackles rising. He has not had to justify himself to anyone in years, so his defensiveness jumps in immediately. “I am working better than ever. I _feel_ better than I have, ever.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Daichi tries to placate, but Tooru has already grabbed ahold of this thread of their conversation and will continue to unravel it until there’s nothing but string left.

“My intensity is what helped me graduate at the top of our class. What drove me to advocate for this mission. What fueled all my sleepless nights, what got me to accept...” Here he stumbles, because while he knows Hajime has been nothing but good to him, he is not sure how these two will take him spilling the fact that some unknown being takes over his mind every night. He knows Suga will freak out, will force him into his office for hours. He probably wouldn’t let him leave until everything was nice and settled in their new habitat.

Tooru was not having any of that. 

“My nightmares,” he finishes way too late, earning another concerned mutual glance from Daichi and Suga. 

“As long as you are feeling alright,” Daichi murmurs. “Your eyes...”

“It must have been the light,” Suga jumps in. He knows when Tooru is about to storm away from a conversation. He knows Tooru better than anyone, probably. Except Hajime. “You’re in the first landing party, right? Tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Tooru says. He loves holding grudges, but not with two of his only friends on the ship. “In those awful suits. We know there is enough oxygen in the air to sustain us...”

“Better safe than sorry. We don’t know what else there is. We definitely aren’t prepared when it comes to immunity. You shouldn’t breathe in bacteria you can’t fight,” Daichi points out. Ever the biologist, as Suga just said.

Tooru rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know. The dumb suit will stay on.”

After dinner Tooru reluctantly joins the two of them at a ship wide party to celebrate their imminent arrival. Tooru is popular on the ship—if not for his looks, than for his brain, and if not for that, then his obsessive determination to make everyone like him.

He slips away as the crowd starts dispersing. The anticipation of so many things jumble in his thoughts, culminating in him tossing and turning before finally, blissfully, allowing darkness to take over. 

***

Tooru is one hundred percent sure he fell asleep, but he is standing face to face with a man he has never met before. He is just slightly shorter than him, with spiked dark hair and green eyes. He is fit—an athlete, someone who uses their arms a lot by the look of his biceps. His face is pleasant. If Tooru had met him in college, he probably would have tried for a date or several.

In fact, he looks familiar. In fact, Tooru is sure those eyes are not a stranger’s. 

The man in front of Tooru smirks when Tooru comes to the realization. “You look like me.” Tooru blurts. Then, after a few seconds he realizes what he has said, and his face flames. “I...I mean, you look humanoid. I mean, you are...?”

“I look how you want me to,” Hajime says. It is the same voice that has lived in Tooru’s brain for weeks. Hearing it outside of his mind (can it even be outside of his mind when he’s dreaming?) is both disappointing and exciting. Hajime reaches out, places his fingers are the back of Tooru’s neck, his palms hot and heavy resting on his neck. He places his thumbs on Tooru’s cheekbones. Tooru shivers at the intimacy, then grabs Hajime’s wrists. He isn’t sure if it’s to stop him from moving or to stop him from continuing. “You land soon. Will you meet me?”

Tooru blinks. “I...Yes?” 

“Come to the left side of your ship and I will be waiting. To give you a new beginning.”

“With you?” Tooru whispers. 

Hajime smiles. “With me. You should sleep now so you are ready.”

Tooru nods. A sense of coherency sneaks into his mind. “You aren’t going to...hurt the ship, right? Or my people?”

Hajime shrugs. “I do not foresee that happening. We will work together peacefully. Through you.”

“I’m not a diplomat,” Tooru says. "I'm a chemist."

“You are the one I wanted,” Hajime says simply. “Enough questions. You should sleep.”

Tooru’s eyes widen as Hajime presses his lips to his. Before he can even react he is blinking back in bed, the clock hovering at two.

He rolls toward the wall. He should sleep. Like Hajime said, he has a long day ahead of him tomorrow. 

***

Tooru pulls at the sleeves of his suit. He hates it. Because he is taller than most here, they had to special order it, which should have helped but instead has made it tight through his legs and arms, all the extra fabric around his torso. 

“Stop fussing,” Suga admonishes, holding onto Tooru’s hands. “You won’t care in a few minutes, right?”

Tooru sighs because Suga’s right. This is the culmination of everything he has worked toward. A little bit of discomfort is nothing compared to leaving this ship for the first time in six years, one of the first (like, the fifth because of the scouting party, but still, one of the first) to set foot on another planet. 

His heart is beating hard for a myriad of reasons. Mostly for the landing, he tells himself. Mostly. 

He is jolted out of his thoughts when Suga tries to put his helmet over his head. “Ack!” he says. “My hair! Stop!”

Suga laughs. “There you are. Have fun? And good luck.” Tooru smiles. Suga is still looking at him. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

“Never better,” Tooru says. Suga nods. Tooru almost, almost feels guilty for what he is about to do, but not enough to spill his well-guarded secret so he just puts his helmet on. 

He fidgets as they cycle the airlock. He should listen to the voice in his helmet giving instructions. Instead, he glances around, stands on his toes to get the first glimpse of his new home. Or, what he thinks is his new home. 

What is Hajime going to do with him? Maybe he shouldn’t go. He could always make an excuse. He probably should. This first time...it should belong to him alone. 

He blinks. He feels like he has woken up from a long, hazy dream. A deep fear settles into his gut. He turns to tell someone, anyone, he can’t go out, that something is happening to him, that he is panicking, that something is going to devour him...

He gasps as his throat constricts. _Not changing your mind, are you? You need me, Tooru. You_ want _me. And I want you. So come find me._

Tooru doesn’t know what his hesitation was. Of course he wants to get off this ship. He has always wanted to find alien life, and now he has. 

“Tooru, you’re being left behind “ Suga’s voice comes through his helmet. He jumps, then hurries to follow his team out the door.

It’s beautiful. It’s also...fairly normal from first glance. Maybe there is new vegetation in the jungle on the horizon, but here they are standing on grass. Tooru resists the urge to roll in it. He couldn't feel it anyway.

_I thought you might like it,_ Hajime’s voice echoes in his mind, over the exclamations of the radio in his helmet. Tooru turns his head to the left to see Hajime in the shadows of the ship. His heart speeds up. In anticipation, in dread, he can’t tell. He doesn’t know who he is anymore.

He glances around to make sure no one is paying attention to him before slipping away. Hajime smiles at him, the same smile as the night before. “You won’t need that anymore. The helmet that breathes for you. Take it off.”

Tooru hesitates. As much of a fuss as he had thrown putting it on, the security of it is comforting. 

“Tooru? Where are you?” Suga’s voice filters into his helmet. Hajime nods his head to indicate Tooru should continue. He lays his fingers on the clasps of his helmet. “Answer me damnit. I’ve been through half the camera feeds and I can’t...Tooru, what the fuck? Why are you over there? Don’t take your...”

But Tooru has already lifted his helmet off his head, his radio feed cutting out. He takes a deep breath of fresh air. He sees Hajime grinning at him, so, so close. 

“Open your mouth,” he whispers. Tooru opens it to ask why when Hajime’s hand clamps down on his mouth and nose. He gasps but all he feels is that same inky viscous liquid he had become used to sliding into his mouth, his nose, slipping down his throat. 

“Relax,” Hajime whispers. Tooru’s eyes roll to the back of his head as he loses consciousness. He feels Hajime all around him. “I am the beginning. Your new beginning.” And everything is black, black, black.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments/kudos welcome!


End file.
